yeah! since 8th grade... and I am now 40-teen. it was always hard for me to understand how we are raised to learn some of life's most important lessons through the animation and puppetry of animals, and then go home to find the real animals cut up and cooked on the table for us to eat. it bothered me from a very early age. i remember a song by Howard Jones that had a chorus of children singing, "children's stories with their farmyard favourites, at the table in a different disguise..." that really slammed it home for me, especially since it made no sense to differentiate the value of a life between my beloved dog, or an abandoned, abused cow or pig, you know?

one day, a friend told me he was vegetarian... this possibility had never occurred to me! i asked how to be vegetarian and he said: "uhh, you stop eating animals." I said, oh. and haven't eaten one since.

a side note: my dad was a butcher, too, but ironically had nothing to do with my choice to stop eating animals.

(btw, nice to meet you! you were a topic of fun conversation at the NYC Vimeo Meetup!)

that's incredible.

i've tried vegetarianism twice because of this same reason, but i've always went back to eating meat for some reason. i think it's because it's difficult for me to maintain my meatlessness. everyone around me is a meat eater, and i break down easily.

i'll try again.

oh..nice to meet you too!